Gaming Elden Ring - Fromsoftware

Drainy said:
I am level 90 and am at the point where you are looking for the eternal city.

Did a lot of grinding! :lol:

My arcane turtle build is coming together.
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90? Wow, I found the 2 underground cities pretty easy at 75-80 to be honest, though I've yet to do the final boss of Ranni's questline who I'm assuming will be a bastard.

Dragonbarrow is still the toughest area I've been to in a long time, I can't kill that fecking giant eagle thing on the stairs up at the end, even at level 85.
 
Mimic tear fully upgraded is so OP. Shamed I missed it on my 1st playthrough. Doing ng+ and it's so cool to use.
 
I'm gonna start new game + this evening gonna spec my warrior towards sorcery so i can switch between magical and physical on the fly i already have a decent amount of faith for self healing and buffing from abusing the power levelling area.

What's considered the go to sorcerer weapon as i'll spec it up to +10/+25 before starting new game +?
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I'm tempted, but I've never played a From game before... The difficulty has always put me off. Would this be a good starter?
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I don't know if I could recommend it.

It's certainly easier than the others, and there are options of other places to go (though DS1 has that too, I don't know why people who claim to have played it overlook that) if you get stuck, but it can be incredibly cheap and frustrating. Stunlocking is perhaps the worst out of the entire series in this, including 2 and enemy placement is continually annoying and designed for fake challenge rather than fun.

The biggest sticking point is if you like OW games and can be bothered of an hour or 10 in between the dungeons. Because if you aren't that keen on endless riding around to find little of note, this couple with the tedious enemies can be a terrible game for you. However when it's good, it's very good. All the other games are much more memorable though, I've got 50-odd hours in this and can barely remember a single boss fight nor location, which is incredibly unusual for a soulsborne game.

Bloodborne is super cheap and you still rock the PS4 don't you? You should give that a try. It may be harder, but it's much fairer and infinitely better paced, so you have nothing to lose by trying the style of combat first in that (although it's slightly different and faster paced, it's more or less the nuts and bolts of the souls games). Or if you prefer a more sci-fi setting, I highly recommend The Surge which should be super cheap too (I think that's probably on gamepass also).
 
Redlambs said:
I don't know if I could recommend it.

It's certainly easier than the others, and there are options of other places to go (though DS1 has that too, I don't know why people who claim to have played it overlook that) if you get stuck, but it can be incredibly cheap and frustrating. Stunlocking is perhaps the worst out of the entire series in this, including 2 and enemy placement is continually annoying and designed for fake challenge rather than fun.

The biggest sticking point is if you like OW games and can be bothered of an hour or 10 in between the dungeons. Because if you aren't that keen on endless riding around to find little of note, this couple with the tedious enemies can be a terrible game for you. However when it's good, it's very good. All the other games are much more memorable though, I've got 50-odd hours in this and can barely remember a single boss fight nor location, which is incredibly unusual for a soulsborne game.

Bloodborne is super cheap and you still rock the PS4 don't you? You should give that a try. It may be harder, but it's much fairer and infinitely better paced, so you have nothing to lose by trying the style of combat first in that (although it's slightly different and faster paced, it's more or less the nuts and bolts of the souls games). Or if you prefer a more sci-fi setting, I highly recommend The Surge which should be super cheap too (I think that's probably on gamepass also).
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Counter argument: It's great and anyone I know who's played it who hasn't played a Souls game before seems to be really enjoying it as an entry way into the series. I think it's only Souls veterans like yourself who will notice all those things you've pointed out that don't make it as good a Souls game as others. Bloodborne is an infinitely more frustrating experience at the beginning and it took me years to finally get through that initial area and enjoy it.
 
Drainy said:
My build at the moment - mid game

Vigor 25
Mind 22
Endurance 24
Strength 17
Dexterity 22
Intelligence 7
Faith 15
Arcane 40+

Bloody Godskin Peeler w/ blood slash
Dragon Commune sacred seal
Brass shield

Banished Knight Set

Erdtrees favour talisman
Green Turtle Talisman
Arsenal talisman

Rotten Breath
Frost Breath
Beastial Vitality
Beast Claw

6/3 towards crimson flasks

Gives me options - 2 handed aggressive to proc bleeds and stagger or go defensive and rot/turtle them out
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Don't know of many people doing an arcane build. Your item discovery must be immense with that stat? How does it affect your attacking options?
 
Gehrman said:
For people who have completed the game, how do you rate it? As a massive fan of the soulsborne series, I think I would give it an 8 or 8.5/10. The open world feels empty in the sense that there is nothing but enemies and bosses. It becomes very predictable. Bosses arent as good or memorable as in Bloodborne or DS3, and many of the bosses are just copies of each other. and the combat isn't better. It's still a good game. With a staggering amount of areas. I feel the graphics could have been better on ps5, but i'm not complaining. As someone else said this basically open world ds2. I feel the difficulty of a lot of the bosses, especially late and end game just takes the piss and aren't fair. I feel open world games get overrated in general including BOTW/GTA etc. but perhaps that's because i'm not a kid or a teenager anymore, so my sense of immersion is less. Still it's a impressive effort from From Software, but I'm not going open world managed to improve the formula. If they are doing it again, they are going to have to throw in some more story and more npc's ala The Witcher to make the world interesting apart from non stop figthing with enemies and bosses. Also I never used about 99% of the items I picked up.
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Not quite done yet, but i have played enough that i think i can give a fair review

Pros:
  • Absoloutely massive world
  • Ashes of War are a clear improvement on the old system
  • Combat is still as intense and good as ever
  • Fantastic art direction. People many moan about dated graphics, but the overall design is fantastic imo
  • The legacy dungeons are incredible imo. So many secret areas is mond boggling
  • Horse + dedicated jump button is huge imo. I never thought i'd say it, but i actually found platforming enjoyable here, which in earler Soul games have been pure torture
Cons
  • These damn quests are as convoluted as evver and with such a huge world its very easy to miss a whole lot of content. I dont want a quest log and arrows that point me around, but for example brother Coryn, how the flying feck are you supposed to know where he went without looking it up or getting lucky
  • Its pretty poorly balanced at this point. Stuff like mimic tear and certain builds almost makes things trivial where as other builds struggle hard with the same enemies and bosses
  • Crafting is...alright but 95% of these items im never going to bother making. The only time i found it useful was making rotbone arrows for a certain boss
 
Bobcat said:
Not quite done yet, but i have played enough that i think i can give a fair review

Pros:
  • Absoloutely massive world
  • Ashes of War are a clear improvement on the old system
  • Combat is still as intense and good as ever
  • Fantastic art direction. People many moan about dated graphics, but the overall design is fantastic imo
  • The legacy dungeons are incredible imo. So many secret areas is mond boggling
  • Horse + dedicated jump button is huge imo. I never thought i'd say it, but i actually found platforming enjoyable here, which in earler Soul games have been pure torture
Cons
  • These damn quests are as convoluted as evver and with such a huge world its very easy to miss a whole lot of content. I dont want a quest log and arrows that point me around, but for example brother Coryn, how the flying feck are you supposed to know where he went without looking it up or getting lucky
  • Its pretty poorly balanced at this point. Stuff like mimic tear and certain builds almost makes things trivial where as other builds struggle hard with the same enemies and bosses
  • Crafting is...alright but 95% of these items im never going to bother making. The only time i found it useful was making rotbone arrows for a certain boss
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How does one beat fire Giant fair and square?
 
I'm 100 hours in and still not bored; in fact I think this might be my favourite Souls game, or joint top with BB. It's not perfect but the open world has been a breath of fresh air for me, as I was getting sick to death of those type of games, even the better ones like Horizon were starting to piss me off. It's proof that the open world can either be good or bad depending on how it's implemented.
 
Bobcat said:
Not quite done yet, but i have played enough that i think i can give a fair review

Pros:
  • Absoloutely massive world
  • Ashes of War are a clear improvement on the old system
  • Combat is still as intense and good as ever
  • Fantastic art direction. People many moan about dated graphics, but the overall design is fantastic imo
  • The legacy dungeons are incredible imo. So many secret areas is mond boggling
  • Horse + dedicated jump button is huge imo. I never thought i'd say it, but i actually found platforming enjoyable here, which in earler Soul games have been pure torture
Cons
  • These damn quests are as convoluted as evver and with such a huge world its very easy to miss a whole lot of content. I dont want a quest log and arrows that point me around, but for example brother Coryn, how the flying feck are you supposed to know where he went without looking it up or getting lucky
  • Its pretty poorly balanced at this point. Stuff like mimic tear and certain builds almost makes things trivial where as other builds struggle hard with the same enemies and bosses
  • Crafting is...alright but 95% of these items im never going to bother making. The only time i found it useful was making rotbone arrows for a certain boss
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I'm 30 hours in (or close to it) and I literally haven't crafted a single item. I started off gathering all the different crafting items around the open world, but now I just don't bother because I don't think I'm going to craft anything the way it's going.
 
Irwin99 said:
Don't know of many people doing an arcane build. Your item discovery must be immense with that stat? How does it affect your attacking options?
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Due to S scaling on my Sacred Seal and how arcane impacts bleeding procs its not horrible but will be better when I get the black whetstone and can further improve weapon scaling for arcane.

My strength and dex are both fairly middling to meet requirements of Godskin Peeler so bump it a little bit too. The moveset on twin blade is great, decent range for packs and staggers a lot too
 
Irwin99 said:
I'm 100 hours in and still not bored; in fact I think this might be my favourite Souls game, or joint top with BB. It's not perfect but the open world has been a breath of fresh air for me, as I was getting sick to death of those type of games, even the better ones like Horizon were starting to piss me off. It's proof that the open world can either be good or bad depending on how it's implemented.
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Yeah, I have real open-world fatigue, and this game got me out of that funk. The sense of exploration is incredible I think. The fact that it just allows you to explore without constantly reminding you to do this or that by having a million icons cluttering the map is a nice change of pace. I've played the Souls games with BloodBorne and Sekiro, as well, and this is probably my second favorite. It's close because I love Sekiro. So maybe joint second. But I prefer it over the Souls games, for sure. And I'm a fan of those.

BloodBorne is still number one though. Can't be beaten.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I'm tempted, but I've never played a From game before... The difficulty has always put me off. Would this be a good starter?
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Get it, I've been trying to get my group into these games for years and have always failed. Elden Ring is the first time they've not only stuck at it for more than a day, but are still at it weeks later.

Massive Spanner said:
Counter argument: It's great and anyone I know who's played it who hasn't played a Souls game before seems to be really enjoying it as an entry way into the series. I think it's only Souls veterans like yourself who will notice all those things you've pointed out that don't make it as good a Souls game as others. Bloodborne is an infinitely more frustrating experience at the beginning and it took me years to finally get through that initial area and enjoy it.
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Yes. I agree with some of what Redlambs is saying (especially regarding bosses, but disagree with some of his other points), but in terms of a newcomer playing this it's far more accessible than previous entries in the series.

I'd highly recommend it.
 
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Elden Ring is far more new user friendly, or as new user friendly as you can get in a FromSoft game.
 
Ok so Redhana. I have some success, until eventually in his 'final' stage, I just can't damn well find the summons anymore. Is there any rhyme or reason as to where they occur? All the f*ckers who have none summons messages should have their priveledges revoked imo! I just run around on horseback desperately looking for something orange, but its so hard to find, and eventually he one shots me with a meteor that I can't see coming, because i'm looking for the goddamn summons.

Overall, not at all a fun fight, imo.
 
Just started and I see a lot of posts about grinding. Is this one of these games?

I've played all the Soulsborne games and never felt the need to endlessly grind Souls. I hope it isn't the case here.
 
Shane88 said:
Just started and I see a lot of posts about grinding. Is this one of these games?

I've played all the Soulsborne games and never felt the need to endlessly grind Souls. I hope it isn't the case here.
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I think its grinding smithing Stones more than anything. I only Seem to gain about. 1 to 3 levels from beating a major boss which is a drag.
 
Shane88 said:
Just started and I see a lot of posts about grinding. Is this one of these games?

I've played all the Soulsborne games and never felt the need to endlessly grind Souls. I hope it isn't the case here.
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No, it's only for bads like me. If you are good you don't need it
 
Beachryan said:
Ok so Redhana. I have some success, until eventually in his 'final' stage, I just can't damn well find the summons anymore. Is there any rhyme or reason as to where they occur? All the f*ckers who have none summons messages should have their priveledges revoked imo! I just run around on horseback desperately looking for something orange, but its so hard to find, and eventually he one shots me with a meteor that I can't see coming, because i'm looking for the goddamn summons.

Overall, not at all a fun fight, imo.
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Never got to the bottom of it, they usually stopped showing up for me when he was at about 60% health then reappeared shortly after the second stage started. When they did appear, it would be on top of the hill not at the bottom where they were at the start

Also, I agree, I didn't enjoy this fight whatsoever.
 
Thanks everyone for the replies (too many to quote - you generous bastards) - lots of food for thought. You all have mostly eased my fears...
 
The duo boss fights have to be the absolute worst thing about this game. Two crucible knights? Feck off. I'm going to mimic cheese that and I don't care.
 
Kaos said:
The duo boss fights have to be the absolute worst thing about this game. Two crucible knights? Feck off. I'm going to mimic cheese that and I don't care.
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I think they're only there because we have Ash Summons. There are several duo fights and every one of them is tediously difficult if you fight alone. But 2 on 2 they become a bit more interesting.
 
Any PC gamers here?


I'm trying to figure out if mouse and keyboard is a better combination than using my PS5 controller. This dodge and Slash game play is kinda annoying
 
Massive Spanner said:
Counter argument: It's great and anyone I know who's played it who hasn't played a Souls game before seems to be really enjoying it as an entry way into the series. I think it's only Souls veterans like yourself who will notice all those things you've pointed out that don't make it as good a Souls game as others. Bloodborne is an infinitely more frustrating experience at the beginning and it took me years to finally get through that initial area and enjoy it.
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True. That's because they haven't encountered these problems before. DS2 is riddled with them, and if you go back and find those player reviews you'll see why I compare it.

So whilst I get your point, you should surely get why I see it as a backwards step and just not as interesting nor fun. After all, many more people loved Skyrim over Morrowind and that's because of pandering and driving the sale up but not driving the genre on. I'm willing to bet more open world gamers are struggling with these reviews and not getting it, than actually are. And we can't include all those streamers paid for it, I bet when the dust settles people will realise that this is either less than what they've experienced with over OW games or they are like me and simply don't get why the genre isn't pushed on.

And to complete my point, I'll also state that not a single one of the 20-odd bosses I've faced so far are either memorable nor interesting to fight. I respect what they've tried, but I also see through it. And even on the most basic level, technically it's not even as polished as DS3/BB and people are free to challenge that. Why has it gone backwards, and why aren't people pulling it apart like they do all the other new games like Horizon? I mean FFS nearly every animation is the same and most of the enemies have featured before, and yet this is supposedly a new IP?

Worst of all, it's not like BB nor sekiro. At least both of them were side games trying new stuff, this is blatantly just DS4 trying to fool people with the G.R.R.LAZYfeck influence. So yeah, I'm a bit gutted at just how bland this all is.
 
Redlambs said:
And then when you bite the bullet you'll realise I'm right.

Or be your usual stubborn self and pretend you love this :lol:
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The more I play it the more I love it. And this is coming from a souls veteran who shared the same DS2 concerns.

It's not the 10/10 masterpiece the reviewers are claiming it to be, but its a bloody good game, and for me their most polished and ambitious entry to the series. Yes there are aspects I dislike (the barren moments between dungeons, the silly artificial difficulty spikes), but it's had a bigger pull for me than any other souls game. The quality of life improvements have also helped to the extent I'd find it hard to go back to older FromSoftware games (no item durability, generous bonfire placements, easy respecs etc).

I think you're being overly negative. Perhaps its time to move on and come back to it if or when you get the itch again :lol:
 
Redlambs said:
True. That's because they haven't encountered these problems before. DS2 is riddled with them, and if you go back and find those player reviews you'll see why I compare it.

So whilst I get your point, you should surely get why I see it as a backwards step and just not as interesting nor fun. After all, many more people loved Skyrim over Morrowind and that's because of pandering and driving the sale up but not driving the genre on. I'm willing to bet more open world gamers are struggling with these reviews and not getting it, than actually are. And we can't include all those streamers paid for it, I bet when the dust settles people will realise that this is either less than what they've experienced with over OW games or they are like me and simply don't get why the genre isn't pushed on.

And to complete my point, I'll also state that not a single one of the 20-odd bosses I've faced so far are either memorable nor interesting to fight. I respect what they've tried, but I also see through it. And even on the most basic level, technically it's not even as polished as DS3/BB and people are free to challenge that. Why has it gone backwards, and why aren't people pulling it apart like they do all the other new games like Horizon? I mean FFS nearly every animation is the same and most of the enemies have featured before, and yet this is supposedly a new IP?

Worst of all, it's not like BB nor sekiro. At least both of them were side games trying new stuff, this is blatantly just DS4 trying to fool people with the G.R.R.LAZYfeck influence. So yeah, I'm a bit gutted at just how bland this all is.
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Where did you get up to in it?
 
Side note: I found the 'crow ledge' for farming. I'm a spellblade, so stood on side used the big ole arrow and perfect spell. Sucess. However, since then, I either can't hit the crow or worse, I hit him and he dosen't get annoyed, just starts walking back and forth. I wonder if they fixed it.
 
Kaos said:
The more I play it the more I love it. And this is coming from a souls veteran who shared the same DS2 concerns.

It's not the 10/10 masterpiece the reviewers are claiming it to be, but its a bloody good game, and for me their most polished and ambitious entry to the series. Yes there are aspects I dislike (the barren moments between dungeons, the silly artificial difficulty spikes), but it's had a bigger pull for me than any other souls game. The quality of life improvements have also helped to the extent I'd find it hard to go back to older FromSoftware games (no item durability, generous bonfire placements, easy respecs etc).

I think you're being overly negative. Perhaps its time to move on and come back to it if or when you get the itch again :lol:
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No, it has way more problems that mirror DS2 to make it not "polished" at all. And it's not overly negative, look at it this way...I really wanted and still want to love it, but I can't look past the blatant problems that everyone else seems to. It's disappointment, not hate. I didn't buy it for myself, my Mrs and my boy on all three platforms to hate on it.

It's just not that great, worse than that, it's underbaked and a backwards step. I mean as a DS2 player yourself, you surely see the struggles with making it the fabled "difficult" game, the hitbox issues, the ladder issues, the i-frame problems that match that game more than DS3/BB/Sekiro? You must surely see the lack of direction with the bosses and the regurgitation of the locales?

Let's be honest, it mirrors DS2 in many more ways that any of the others, including the development and the story (and Martin's supposed involvement). Sure the next one will likely build on it, but this one has clearly gone back a step, just like when they couldn't figure out how to recapture the magic with DS2 so they mirrored the bosses/enemies and tried to make it harder with the cheapness.

Also, it clearly has issues with the balancing and stuff like the poise not working how it should. But again, because it's FROM people overlook the fact they rarely fix things or bother to patch and leave it to modders...
 
Beachryan said:
Side note: I found the 'crow ledge' for farming. I'm a spellblade, so stood on side used the big ole arrow and perfect spell. Sucess. However, since then, I either can't hit the crow or worse, I hit him and he dosen't get annoyed, just starts walking back and forth. I wonder if they fixed it.
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It's still working. You must be standing almost next to the stationary first enemy that's on the cliff edge. Also, don't be tempted to move until you see the bird definitely falls off. I've had it where he was about to fall and I ran off only for him to cancel out of the fall animation and start walking around.
 
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